


And So We Do It Together

by BadgerInMySoup, youngavengersbigbang



Category: Young Avengers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-29 13:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1006042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadgerInMySoup/pseuds/BadgerInMySoup, https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngavengersbigbang/pseuds/youngavengersbigbang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somehow, in the span of two years, Teddy and Tommy find their place while living with the Kaplans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And So We Do It Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cris-Art](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Cris-Art).



> **Warnings:** Slightly mentions of depression- Billy related
> 
> **Notes:** This takes place from the end of Children's Crusade to about where the new run starts off

 

It starts like this-

Two boys on the threshold of a house they’re not entirely ready for. Each with a suit case in one hand, a back pack slung over a shoulder and a look of trepidation on their face. 

Teddy’s the one who speaks first. “Well. Here we go.”

“Yeah,” Tommy says quietly. 

The Kaplan’s had turned their only free room into a small bedroom for the boys, who would be sleeping in, to Tommy’s object horror and Teddy’s barely concealed excitement, bunk beds. Teddy called bottom (and Tommy had to refrain from making a joke he knew was offensive; and succeeded, he would call that progress) while Tommy threw his stuff onto the top bunk.

“Are you guys excited?” Billy’s little brother, Ethan, asks. 

Tommy nearly jumps a foot in the air and vaguely wonders if the mini Kaplans somehow inherited Billy’s ability to teleport. “Oh, yeah. Looking forward to the fu-“

Teddy elbows him. “You bet, Ethan. It’s gonna be a blast.”

Ethan beams and scurries down the hallway; Teddy turns to Tommy.

“Try not to swear in front of them, okay? Mrs.Kaplan doesn’t like it. She has an actual swear jar. It’s how Ben rakes in all his cash.”

Tommy snorts. “Joy.”

“So, we’re going to be roommates,” Teddy says. “That will be fun. As long as you don’t snore.”

“And as long as you don’t sneak Billy in here for a little midnight pleasure,” Tommy says, just so he can watch Teddy’s face go pink. “Sorry, I had to play the protective older brother card some time.”

“Are you even the older one?” Teddy asks. “Like, do you _know_ or?”

“I’m the older one,” Tommy says, clapping his hands together. “I’m also the hungry one. Gonna go raid the fridge.”

Teddy frowns. “Dinner is probably really soon and-“

Tommy points at him. “Dude, I did not grow up in a sit-down-and-eat-dinner kind of family. And the Kaplans have been all insistent that I make myself at home. So I’m going to snack.”

Teddy continues to frown but doesn’t say anything as Tommy slips down the hallway.

XxX

“Billy?” Teddy asks, creeping into the living room. 

Billy’s still up in the window sill, legs pulled in, arms resting on his knees. He stares out at something Teddy will never know or understand but his head shifts slightly and Teddy knows that means he’s listening.

“I’m officially moved in. Well, Tommy and I both are. We’re living together.”

He comes closer. Billy still doesn’t look up and Teddy swallows down a million different emotions and pastes a smile on his face. “I promised your parents there would be no unbecoming conduct between us. Perfectly chaste. So don’t think about sneaking into my room, alright?”

Billy makes a noise and Teddy can’t tell if it’s a laugh or a scoff or a dismissal. He thinks that hurts worse than if he just been ignored at all.

XxX

Being suddenly thrust into a family environment is tough. The Kaplans are great, really they are. Sometimes a little too great. But it’s still an overwhelming environment for someone whose parents were divorced by the time he was seven, had more freedom than any other twelve year old in existence and was carted off to juvie by fifteen.

Or at least, what they told his mom was juvie. 

He has chores now; every Tuesday and Thursday, he and Ethan do the wishes and set the table. Ethan lets it slip that this used to be Billy’s chore and it’s only Tommy’s quick reflexes that save the plate he had in his hand. 

In all honesty, that’s the worse part.

The flicker that goes across Jeff and Rebecca’s face every time they cross in the hallway; the quick, sudden rise of hope until their eyes focus, until the white hair becomes obvious and everything fades as quickly as it had come.

Billy still hasn’t left the windowsill. Not by any large margin of time; he’ll go to the bathroom and he’ll eat when Teddy and his mom coax him into it. He might even sleep, Tommy isn’t sure. 

Kate used to come by every day with movies and expensive junk food. She and Teddy and Tommy would crowd the couch and watch movies that Billy loved loudly in hopes of hitting some sort of nerve, of getting him over to join them. Tommy would’ve even given anything to hear a stupid movie fun fact. But Billy stayed quiet. 

“It was hard enough losing Cassie,” Kate tells Tommy softly one night, “And then Eli…I can’t lose Billy too.”

“Teddy thinks he’ll snap out of it soon.”

“And what do _you_ think?” she asks imploringly. 

Tommy shrugs and doesn’t look at her. “I think Billy’s going to stay there as long as he feels like it. And there’s nothing we can do to get him back.”

He thinks maybe she makes a noise like a sob but when he does look at her, she has her sunglasses on (despite the darkness outside) and a stillness to her lips.

“I need a break,” she says. “Tell Billy…I’m sorry.”

That’s the last movie night for a while.

XxX

Teddy emails Eli weekly; he tells him stories about the Kaplan clan, about the aches and pains that go along with living with Tommy; about how Billy still refuses to resemble anything like he used to.

_He’ll come around_ Eli promises constantly _He just needs to realize this is not his fault_

The only thing Teddy doesn’t tell him about is the nightmares. He’s pretty sure no one knows about them because Billy is always so quiet when he cries out, it’s only a miracle that Teddy happened to be passing by Billy’s room after a quick trip to the bathroom.

Billy hovers above the bed, thrashing about in mid-air, mumbles falling from his lips, pleads to spare his friends, spare him, spare Teddy above all please. Teddy can’t get him to wake up, no matter how many times he calls Billy’s name and he can’t get him to sink back down on the bed no matter how hard he pulls.

The nightmare ends when Billy is ready for it to end, he thinks, this is his last true way he can punish himself. 

(Teddy sneaks in every night just in hopes that this will be the last one)

XxX

Tommy wakes up in the middle of the night with an _itch_ to run to go to leave to be anywhere that isn’t here. He hasn’t run since the team disbanded, hasn’t let his body be free since he buried his costume at the bottom of his suitcase and did everything he could to not look back.

He sneaks it out now, while Teddy snores softly in the bunk behind him. Runs his hands over the green and white fabric and longs for before. For the days of the Young Avengers when Billy was still Billy, Cassie was still alive and his entire life didn’t feel like it was running on empty.

Was that only a month or so ago? 

He makes up his mind, quickly, throws the suit on and goes out the window, down the fire escape before anyone can notice. He’s suddenly, wildly, once again free. He inhales the night air, the sounds of the city that calls to him and, after not even a moment, throws himself into a run.

Everything whooshes past him in slow motion; people out living their own lives, cars with important places to, an entire world sits at his feet and he’s going to enjoy ever y second of it that he can. He runs all the way to California and back again, stopping in odd off states, looking at a monument every now and then. 

For one fleeting moment, he almost goes to Jersey but he switches tracks just as easily as he’d begun. That’s a trip for another day, another Tommy. Perhaps, he can admit to himself here in the night when no one is around, a stronger Tommy.

He goes back to the Kaplans, back to his top bunk, costume once again buried in the bottom of his suitcase. 

XxX

Teddy’s favorite thing about the Kaplan house isn’t what he thought it would be. 

It isn’t just Billy but the familiarity of the house. The way the family has opened up and welcomed him as one of their own. The way he offers to pick Ben up from school and the way the youngest Kaplan’s eyes light up when he does. The way he offers to help Ethan with his homework and they spend most of the time talking about high school and how much it sucks being a freshman. 

It’s the morning coffee he’s started sharing with Jeff; the afternoon walks he enjoys with Rebecca.; the rare evenings that Billy lets himself be coaxed into a dinner.

And it’s, surprisingly, rooming with Tommy. 

Of all his teammates, Tommy was the one he pictured least of having any sort of bond with. But it’s comforting to have someone thrust into the same situation you are; someone who doesn’t understand how a happy nuclear family works let alone how to function with them. But Tommy is a brother-in-awkwardkess. He’s a late night joke that causes him to press his face into his pillow to muffle laughter (and then feel guilty for laughing in the first place).

He’s a, Teddy finds out, surprisingly good card player.

Well into their fourth month in the Kaplan home, Teddy catches Tommy sneaking out. He doesn’t say anything, just lets him go and instead, creeps downstairs to pour himself a glass of milk. He hopes that either Tommy will sneak back in through the back door or realize Teddy isn’t in their room when he returns.

When Tommy does use the backdoor, Teddy says quietly, “Have fun?”

Tommy whirls around, face perfectly innocent. “I was just-“

“Sit down. And shut up.”

Tommy raises an eyebrow at him but does as he says. Teddy waits a moment, then throws a pack of cards at him. “Poker. You play?”

Tommy snorts. “Play is an understatement.” 

Teddy nods. “Cool. Poker, it is.”

“Poker what is?” Tommy asks, tossing the cars back at him. Teddy opens them and starts to shuffle.

“Poker is what we’ll do when we’re both feeling overwhelmed. When you feel like you have to run out of here just to breathe…and when I feel like maybe this was a really bad decision.”

Tommy’s brow furrows at that but he doesn’t say anything. Then, “I don’t have money to play. Neither do you.”

Teddy grins. “So, we’ll play for something else. This can be like a bonding thing. It’ll be fun.”

XxX

Tommy thinks this is a thing Rebecca needs to look into. 

Playing poker for secrets and sharing feelings that otherwise Tommy would keep on lockdown. It’s like pulling teeth when he talks about himself; but here, in the Kaplan kitchen with nothing but him and Teddy and the sound of the poker chips, it’s a lot easier.

“I was an accident,” he says one night when he owes Teddy a particularly hefty secret. “My dad told me once that I was the result of their last hurrah together. That when my mom got pregnant, it fucked up both their lives,” he laughs bitterly, “I was eight and he was drunk and pissed that he got stuck with me that weekend.”

Teddy wisely looks at his cards and says nothing.

“When my grandparents found out, they demanded my parents to the “right thing” and get married. My mom was all set to go college; she had to drop out, of course. And my dad…he had to get a second job. They hated me from the second they saw the first fucking sonogram.”

“Tommy-“

“Whatever. I don’t give a fuck. I _don’t_. They didn’t want me and I certainly don’t want them,” and for a moment, he’s quiet. “The Kaplans have treated me better in five months than my own parents did in fifteen years. I’m done playing tonight.”

Teddy doesn’t protest as Tommy throws his cards onto the table.

XxX

“So, I think I owe you a big secret of my own for last night,” Teddy says, shuffling the cards.

Tommy plays idly with the poker chips. “It doesn’t work like that; you don’t owe anything until you-“

“Rule change,” Teddy says simply. He doesn’t hand out the cards and Tommy makes no move to push him any chips. “I was in love with my best friend before Billy. At least…I thought I was.”

Tommy waits, quietly. Teddy focuses on the cards instead.

“I wasn’t always so…big, I guess you’d say. I used to be as skinny and lanky as Billy was, back when we first started training. I was a nerd, a loser freshmen who liked comic books. I would watch as the _popular_ kids walked around in their cliques and I wanted to be them so much. So, over the summer, I changed. I filled myself out, deepened my voice. And when I came back, people suddenly noticed me. Greg noticed me. And that was all that mattered. I played the sports, I fell into the crowds, I did anything I could to keep his attention on me. I told him my secret. And he used it against me…”

“Fuck him,” Tommy says quietly. 

“It doesn’t hurt as much now,” Teddy continues. “Because I found people who accepted me for who I was; Nate and Eli and especially Billy. Then the girls and you. With you guys around, I don’t need to be the person Greg wanted me to be. I can be me.”

“Does Billy know?”

“Of course he does,” Teddy says simply and Tommy thinks himself silly for even asking. Teddy smiles. “He threatened to go kick Greg’s ass.”

Tommy snorts. “Oh, God, that would have gone over well.”

“Billy can be scrappy when he wants to be,” and then the smile fades, “At least, he did…”

“We’ll get him back,” Tommy says after a moment, “He can’t be gone forever. He just needs…someone to kick his butt out of it.”

“Yeah,” Teddy says quietly. “We, uh, we should play now.”

Tommy doesn’t say anything; just lets Teddy shuffle the cards toward him. 

XxX

Christmas is awkward at first because the Kaplans don’t celebrate it. Tommy is okay with that, really. Christmas wasn’t a big deal in his family either. But he sees the way Teddy’s face falls when no there’s no Christmas tree or decorations around the house, sees the way he tries to hide it and fails.

The Kaplans must notice too because one day, a tree just appears in their living room. Teddy sputters on how they didn’t need to do that and it’s fine and Jeff just tells him to be quiet.

“You boys are family now,” he says, “We can do this.”

Tommy ducks his head so no one sees the way his face warms at the word family. The tree becomes a miracle in another way, as it gets Billy off the window sill, gets him slightly interested as Teddy and Tommy decorate it, with Ben and Ethan helping.

“Want to put the star on?” Tommy hears Teddy murmur to Billy and a moment later, the star floats to the top of the tree, glowing blue.

“Looks good,” he hears Billy say, voice rough from underuse. 

Teddy is staring at the star and looking like he might cry. Instead, he pulls Billy toward him, ducking his head and whispering something that causes an emotion Tommy can’t name pass across Billy’s face quickly. Ben is staring at them curiously so Tommy throws some garland on his head and tells him to get to work. 

XxX

(When they had first moved in and Rebecca had gone about getting Tommy transferred to Billy and Teddy’s school, he regretfully had to break it to her that he hadn’t been in a classroom since he was fifteen. She’d stared blankly at him until he stupidly decided that he wouldn’t need to go to school at all. Then her eyes became pure steel and her spine even worse.

“Nonsense, Thomas,” she’d said sternly. “You’re not going to be a high school drop out.”

“I’m not going back,” he’d told her, “Not when I’m ages behind everyone else, I’m not stupid-“

“Exactly,” she’d said. “So you’re going to take the GED.”

He’d stopped. “Really?”

“Of course,” she’d forced herself to say, “The decision is yours. But you are a smart boy, Tommy. You deserve to have something to show for it.”

“What if I can’t pass it?” Tommy had said after a moment.

Her hand was somehow both gentle and firm on his shoulder. “You will. We’ll help you, if you want. I believe you can do this, Tommy.”

And above all, that alone is what convinced him to do it; her faith in him.)

He’s in the middle of studying when Spiderman is suddenly knocking on his window and telling him to get his ass to the Avenger’s Mansion. Teddy and Billy are already dressed when he gets downstairs and seeing Billy in his costume again is startling. Teddy sends him an encouraging smile over Billy’s head as they teleport to the manor. Kate is already there and sends him a smirk.

He thinks he might be the only one who can see the raw relief in it. 

XxX

After that night, Billy comes back. 

Teddy helps him shave and Billy decides on a new hairdo that Tommy teases because he’s a dick who missed his brother. He gets his ear pierced because he wants something different, something real that he can actually feel. Teddy goes with him and changes out his silver row earrings for a couple of gauges. 

The first night Billy comes down for dinner on his own, Rebecca almost cries. She hugs him really close for a long time, until Jeff awkwardly clears his throat and they sit down as a family.

Teddy can’t keep the smile off his face or his eyes off Billy as he talks to his parents, jokes with his little brothers and looks back at him. They haven’t told anyone of their engagement. Mainly because they know his parents will flip out because they’re so young but also because they aren’t getting married any time soon.

But the idea alone is enough. To know that they will spend their entire lives together, to have that agreement between them. To know that Billy didn’t scare Teddy off with how fast he fell into depression and how long it lasted.

Teddy takes his hand under the table and squeezes. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Billy whispers back. 

XxX

Their first movie night since Billy became Billy again is as eventful as they always wanted it to be. Billy piles into the couch with them and makes a comment no matter how many times Tommy threatens to throw popcorn at him. He and Teddy snuggle grossly and Kate laughs like she used to and Tommy feels lighter somehow. 

Like Billy being back was the final piece they needed to be happy again. 

When the credits roll for their first movie, Billy clears his throat; everyone turns to him expectantly. 

“You guys know that I’ve had a rough few months,” he says, “Everything that happened…with Doom and Cassie. That was my fault.”

“Billy,” Kate starts but Billy holds up a hand to stop her.

“It was. Please don’t try to…I know it was. I accepted it. And now I can learn to deal with it. But…I don’t think we should be superheroes again.”

“The Avengers invited us personally,” Tommy says, a little shell shocked that Billy is saying no. 

“And that’s great…but I don’t want any more of my friends to die because I want to pretend I’m an Avenger.”

Tommy opens his mouth to argue but Teddy catches his eye and shakes his head, just once. 

“Whatever you say, little brother,” he says instead. 

XxX

The first night Teddy gets to sneak into Billy’s room for something far more pleasurable than rousing him from nightmares is the first night they both sleep soundly.

“I missed you,” Billy murmurs, “I missed loving you.”

Teddy pulls him close and kisses him. “You’ll never have to miss me again. I promise. You and me…for the rest of our lives.” 

Billy presses his face into Teddy’s shoulder and Teddy can feel his grin against his skin. 

XxX

Time starts to fly after that. And before he knows it, Tommy and Teddy have been living with the Kaplans for a year. Teddy turns seventeen with a big fanfare and presents and laughter that Tommy has come to learn he wouldn’t trade for anything. 

Tommy passes his GED in flying colors and the entire family takes him out to celebrate. Rebecca toasts him and Billy makes jokes because it’s his turn to be the pain in the ass brother. Jeff rents them a limo to take them out for dinner and when Ben gets tired, he falls asleep right in Tommy’s lap.

This is his family, he thinks. These people that he somehow, through a miracle of something that he once considered the worst thing to ever happen to him, found and came to love him all on their own. It’s the most relaxed and stressed he’s ever felt in his entire life.

He skips out on his and Teddy’s usual poker game in favor of running again. He hasn’t had to do this for months but there’s a jittery feeling under his skin that won’t go away. That is, until he’s standing on the threshold of New Jersey.

He takes three deep breaths. And then he goes.

The house his mother attempted to raise him in is still in the same shabby shape it always was. He stands at the curb and looks at it, years of memories surfacing. Of disastrous birthday parties, screaming matches his parents had on that exact porch, that year he first discovered his powers and accidentally broke his arm running into the garage. 

It’s all bittersweet and overwhelming and his closes his eyes against the onslaught of memories he wasn’t expecting. It gets worse when he realizes his room is exactly the same as he left it. His backpack is still tipped over in the corner from when he threw it that fateful afternoon he came home and two men were waiting for him. 

This room, everything inside it, feels like it all belongs to a Tommy of lifetimes ago. The movies and books on his shelves are childish now, compared to what he watches and how he feels. He still, to his immense horror, has dinosaur sheets on his bed. His mom never came in here once. Never came to clean or fix anything. It’s like she tried to forget he even existed.

He doesn’t realize he’s crying until his face is wet. 

He sits down on his childhood bed and tries to collect himself; this isn’t where he belongs, hasn’t been since he went to _that place_ and never came back. He has a home and a family and the sooner he stops fucking crying he can go back to them and be happy again.

“Tommy?”

His head snaps up. His mom is staring at him as if she’s just seen a ghost. Her face is pale and eyes, he can see, already wet. Her hand slowly comes up over her mouth as her expression grows in astonishment. 

“Hi, mom,” he hears himself say.

And then, somehow, he’s in her arms, his mom is sobbing into his shoulder. He can barely make out anything other than a few ‘sorries’ and ‘my baby’. He pats her back and looks longingly at the door until she moves away, wiping her face.

“Tommy,” she says, voice cracking, “Oh, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that,” and he can’t bring himself to feel bad about the hurt that slides across her face. “You don’t get to call me that. You…you let them take me…you knew what that place was, didn’t you?”

“I was scared!” she exclaims, “Tommy, you blew up your school. You were dangerous, you were-“

“I was your son!” he yells. “And you let them take me!”

She draws herself up, arms folded tightly across her chest. “If you came here just to yell at me, I won’t have it. If you can’t believe that I missed you…”

“I think you felt guilty,” he says, “And that’s why this place looks untouched. Because you can’t bring yourself to come in here. To look at what you let slip away.”

“Are you done blaming me?” she asks coldly. “Throwing around judgments you’re too young to understand.”

“I’m eighteen,” he tells her, “I turned eighteen three months ago. My family threw me a party and everything.”

She nods once. “Good. I-I’m glad.”

“In fact,” he says, backing up, “I should go home. They might be missing me.”

He sees her wince when he says home but she nods again. “Why did you come here, Tommy? If only to yell and leave.”

“I don’t know,” he says quietly, “I think I needed the closure or some shit. Rebecca is the psychologist.”

“So this is goodbye?”

Tommy is very quiet and then, “Do you hate me?”

“What?” she gasps.

“Do you hate me? I know that getting pregnant with me fucked everything up in your life. Is that why you let them take me? Because you’d finally be free of me?”

“Tommy,” she breathes, eyes filling with tears again. “Tommy, I-“

“Don’t answer,” he turns and heads to the window, “I don’t want to know, I changed my mind.”

“Tommy!”

“Goodbye, mom.”

And he runs. Far and fast away from her, from that place, childhood memories that he’ll never escape and a question he’s pretty sure he knows the answer to.

Rebecca is waiting up for him when he gets home. She’s clearly angry until she sees the look on his face. He can barely get a word out before he folds up into her arms. It’s his turn to cry into someone’s shoulder and this time, he feels the warmth of a motherly embrace.

XxX

In a surprising turn of events, Tommy catches Teddy sneaking home one night. He can’t even lie and say he was out with new friends (or worse another boy) because his new uniform stands out perfectly in the low glow from the living room lamp.

“You’ve been superheroing,” Tommy says quietly. 

“Yeah,” Teddy says.

“Clearly, Billy doesn’t know,” Tommy continues, “Because he made us all promise not to be superheroes anymore. Not after what happened.”

“He doesn’t,” Teddy agrees mildly. 

And it’s the way he doesn’t seem bothered by it that sets Tommy off. “And, what, you think he’ll be happy that you’ve totally disregarded his wishes and did what you wanted anyway? Because I can guarantee he won’t be.”

“Damnit, Tommy, of course I know he’s gonna be mad!” Teddy hisses and Tommy stops because he never hears Teddy swear. “But, God, we can’t just…we can’t just quit. There are people out there who need superheroes. And I can’t sit here every night and ignore that.”

He takes a deep breath and sinks down onto the couch. “I stopped a robbery a few weeks ago. They had a gun…if I hadn’t intervened…”

“You did a good thing,” Tommy says quietly.

“And now I can’t stop. I can’t stop going out there and being Hulking again. And I’m terrified to try to explain this to Billy because I know he’ll never understand. This is all I have left…”

“You have the Kaplans,” Tommy says, sounding hurt. “And me.”

“Not like that,” Teddy says. “Although I do appreciate it. But this…this is part of who I am. Who my mom was. Who my actual parents were. I can’t put the costume aside and pretend it doesn’t exist.”

“He’s going to get majorly pissed when he finds out,” Tommy says. 

“You mean when you tell him?”

“No. I mean when he finds out.”

Teddy looks up at him and smiles. “Thanks, man.” 

Tommy grins. “Yeah, yeah. Just do me a favor? Don’t tell him I know. I do not want to be on his shit list.”

Teddy snorts. “Yeah, no problem…you know, I’m not the only one slipping out and playing superhero again.”

Tommy whistles low. “Damn. Kate going solo?”

“She’s with Hawkeye. The original Hawkeye. They were on patrol tonight.”

“Tsk, tsk,” Tommy says, “Of all the people to actually listen to Billy, it’s the one with the criminal record. You guys, I tell you. So disappointmenting.”

“Shut up,” Teddy laughs and tosses a pillow at him. 

XxX

Billy and Teddy graduate and Tommy is right there in the audience with the Kaplans, cheering them on. Kate comes by and sits next to him, joining in when he makes snarky comments about some of the students.

“So, I hear you’re Hawkeye the Sequel?” he asks quietly. 

Kate looks at him shrewdly. “Teddy spilled the beans?”

“I caught him sneaking in,” Tommy says. “Everything came out in a panic, I guess.”

“You didn’t tell Billy,” she observes.

“Not my place. If you guys both feel you have to be superheroes then, by all means, be superheroes.” 

“Not you? From what I recall, you were the only one who didn’t want the team to end?”

He shrugs. “I guess I sort of…grew out of it? I don’t know. The team…the team was a place for me to belong. And-and I still found that.”

She smiles softly. “Tommy Shepherd: all grown up. Never thought I’d see the day.”

“Maybe you’ll date me now?” he asks and even he doesn’t know if he’s joking or not. 

She bumps their shoulders together. “Shush. They’re in the K’s now.” 

He turns back to the graduates and Kate, after a moment, lays her head on his shoulder.

XxX

It ends like this-

A boy in the doorway, one suitcase in one hand and a backpack slung over his other shoulder.

“You don’t have to leave, you know,” Teddy says.

Tommy grins. “Trust me, I know. Rebecca and Jeff told me all about it. But…I do. It’s been great here and I’ll regret it. But I was never meant to live the happy family life forever. I found what I needed and now, it’s time for me to move on.”

“You’ll come back for holiday’s right?”

“Duh. They would track me down and kill me if I didn’t.”

Teddy laughs and looks at him. “Two years ago, do you remember us standing here? About to embark on a whole new chapter of our lives.”

“I remember,” Tommy says quietly. “I never thought that…this would become a place I needed. Or that you and I would…you know.”

Teddy smirks. “I’ll miss you too, Tommy.”

He holds out his hand to shake but Tommy swats at it and hugs him instead. “Take care of him. Of all of them.”

“I promise,” Teddy says. 

Tommy pulls back and smiles. “Well, here I go.”

“Yeah,” Teddy says quietly. 

And in a rush of air, he’s gone.


End file.
